Their Rendezvous
by kudarii
Summary: Aang wasn't there to stop Koh from stealing her face the first time. He failed again when Toph's face was stolen. He just wonders if third time's the charm. Taang-ish oneshot.


**Author's Note: **

(cough) So I'm a fic whore. I love ideas, I really do. That doesn't mean I won't abandon all of my other fics; this Is just a oneshot after all. ...With something I want to make into a story. 8D Eheh. Well, the way I see it, the more fics I have, then it's my punishment if I can't get the updates in. I'll take the flames and I'll whine and I'll cry and that'll be my punishment. Until then... you know that beloved swamp theory that we Taangers love? I was rereading it for kicks and people were just going, "If Toph is destined to die, then they're really lovers!" and stuff like that and this idea just kind of clicked in my head. So... figuratively, it's a Taang. I'd say that's good enough for me, what about you?

**Their Rendezvous**

The first time I had gone into the Avatar State was the first time I had met the father of my half brother, Feng. He had explained to me that the Avatar State was when we avatars were at our zenith of power—but I didn't have control over it. Feng and Mom had to be very delicate in the way they tried to calm me down. This was also the first time that they told me, Hai, the daughter of the Avatar's old waterbending teacher and firebending teacher _was _the next Avatar. Mom and Dad had been keeping it from me...

So the second time I had talked to Avatar Aang, I was accidentally forced myself into the Spirit World whiletrying to find an airbending teacher for my brother. Feng needed one, but Mom never told us the reason why Avatar Aang had died at such a young age. Dad always tells me that I'm exactly like Aang; I'm always the one who wants to avoid conflict.

Maybe that's why waterbenders and airbenders weren't opposites back then. Even though I was searching for Avatar Aang...

_"Ah... the Avatar again, I see." _I met Koh, the Face Stealer instead.

_I couldn't get in reach with Avatar Aang and I didn't know what I was doing. The second I met Koh, I was frightened to no end. "Do you... do you know where I can meet Avatar Aang?" My face faltered and this... this centipede thing slithered over me when I had gasped. Immediately, I bent shards of ice over him._

_ The centipede hissed and I took this chance to run away from the dead tree. I remember my mother telling me frightening tales about how Koh stole the face of Avatar Kuruk's beloved. Avatar Kuruk was a legend for the water tribe—people admired him. Even though I should have known that this lead to trouble, I had forgotten the vital rule: never show emotion when you come in contact with Koh. _

_ I ran and I ran before I finally found a hole in another tree. Twisting my body, I had ice cover me like a suit of armor for defense. I breathed—in, out, in, out. No emotion, Hai. None. Finally, I heard the steps of millions of feet trickle in the muddy waters. I had to try my best when Koh popped his face into me. _

_ "Why run, my pretty?" Koh asked me innocently. No flinching, I yelled to myself when he found a way to seem me above. "You have the most beautiful face, dear Avatar. Somewhat like your past wife..." _

_ Wife... I thought to myself. Ummi; the tale of Ummi. I felt the curly locks of Ummi's hair above me. No gasping, NO GASPING. I looked back up. I had heard tales of Ummi, but she was even more beautiful in person. My heart suddenly beat, but I wasn't sure if was from me... or from Avatar Kuruk. I stayed silent. _

_ He disappeared and reappeared again with a different face—an oni mask. I pulled a lock of my hair behind my ear and gave the most uninterested look I could. I repeated my question."Do you know where I could find Avatar Aang?" _

_ "He is a reflection of you, is he not?" Koh's face changed into someone else's face—an owl's. A reflection of me... The water. Why didn't I realize that? "Yet why would you want to be such a narcissist? Stay with me... stay with your loves..." _

_ My loves? He must have been talking about Ummi... and... I gasped. Koh had turned into a side glance with a new mask that I wasn't very familiar with. A woman with long black hair and pale green eyes. Quickly I quieted when he looked my direction with that face. He seemed suspicious, but I kept my cool. The woman was very pretty and she looked no older than Feng. There was something about her face... it seemed somewhat lovestruck but... with a stubborn attitude? _

_ "...Thank you," I bowed respectfully and quickly left the tree and that centipede behind. Shuddering, I made a mental note to avoid him the next time I forced myself into the Spirit World._

_ When I finally thought I was far enough away from Koh, I looked down into the waters. My reflection was gone—my __fifteen__-year-old reflection. It was replaced with this twelve or thirteen-year-old boy that I was familiar with. Quietly, I muttered, "Avatar Aang." Backing away slowly, his spirit materialized in front of me. _

_ "I hear that you've been searching for me," Avatar Aang looked up at me with an emotionless face, something that made me wonder if he'd face the Koh once before. _

_ "Yes... I have...," I nodded my head with relief. "An airbending teacher. My brother... your son—" Mom had told me when I pointed out that neither she nor Dad knew how to airbend that Feng and I were only half siblings "—he needs an airbending teacher... And so do I." _

_ "I see." Avatar Aang gave me an unsteady look. Something told me that he wasn't very happy to see me at the moment— "I have nothing against you. You came here for a good reason. Your brother and you are weighed down with the extinction of airbenders and the avatar, after all." I smiled. I could see why Mom and Uncle Sokka stayed with him from the very beginning—Avatar Aang was very respectful. He laughed softly, sort of like a little kid. "But I can't teach you, Hai. I can't teach your brother either." _

_ My smile dropped. "Are you..." _

_ "Absolutely sure," Avatar Aang responded. He crouched down. "There are some scrolls with different techniques at each of the air temples though. If your brother were to get a hold of them, he could teach himself and then teach you after you've mastered firebending and earthbending." Something flickered in his eye. "And I know that you may think it seems proper to have your father teach you... but I think you would be more suited for someone your age." _

_ "It won't be easy, will it?" I think Avatar Aang knew that I meant firebending, but I wasn't sure. _

_ "Learning the opposite element is bitter work," he admitted. Something else seemed to flicker in his emotions. Something between guilt, love... and regret? Suddenly, something seemed to make sense about that other girl Koh had in his collection._

_ "Mom used to tell me that your earthbending teacher was so great that she was able to bend metal... and then spent the last remaining part of her years teaching you how to do so." I chose my words carefully. Avatar Aang looked like I had taken him off guard. "And that she died... before Feng was born." _

_ "...Yeah, it's true," Avatar Aang looked uncomfortable on the subject. _

_ "I had visited the Koh when I thought I couldn't find you," I continued. "He showed me a face of a woman with long black hair and pretty green eyes. Was that her?" _

_ I had left the Spirit World the second I blinked. _

In the end, I followed Avatar Aang's advice when he said to find teachers that were closer to my age. Apparently both my mother, father, and Uncle Sokka agreed that it would seem more appropriate to have someone my age to understand me. Feng assisted me, along with Avatar Aang's old sky bison Appa. It was kind of funny how even though Avatar Aang died young, he lived to be a hundred and twenty-three.

_"I met with Avatar Aang. He sends his love... I think." I said to my father. I looked up to him curiously. "How did he die?" _

_ Dad gave me a mixed look. He was very busy when it came to being a Firelord, we all knew that. Biologically speaking, I wasn't only the Avatar, I was also the heir to the throne. "He died... for someone he loved."_

Loved, huh? I pulled that annoying lock of hair behind my ear again. A lot of people said that I looked like my mother, but I wasn't exactly sure. The difference between she and me was that I liked keeping my hair down and let the wind slap at my face. She was the one to teach me waterbending before I learned that I was the Avatar. So once I learned firebending, Feng would finally have to step up and be my teacher. Unfortunately...

"Your stance is all wrong, Seaweed Brain." Stupid, stupid, STUPID Natsu. Did he _have_ to be my teacher when it came to firebending?!

"Maybe... if you tried a different approach for this," I lectured him carefully. The difference between a waterbender and a firebender would have had to been that one of us was patient and it was the opposite for the other.

Natsu gave me this frown. He crossed his arms and bent over me funnily. "Sure. Let's try a different approach only in the same way." He brushed his hands through my hair before yanking a small strand of it out of my scalp.

"Ow!" I glared at him.

Suddenly, it was burnt up from his own firebending. "There. Now you're doing the same thing, only _different._ You have one less hair on you, Princess Seaweed Brain."

I growled. The whole entire reason that I had chosen him as my firebending teacher was because my father had told me specifically to find a teacher that made flames out of happiness, not made them out of cruelty. Natsu was a circus performer and someone that Auntie Ty Lee had introduced me to. "Maybe if you weren't such a lousy teacher, _Sifu Natsu_..."

"Hm." Natsu leaped into the air and did a handstand. He stared at me and all I could do was sneer. Was it this hard for Avatar Aang to learn from his earthbending teacher? What was her name, anyways? I snapped out of my thoughts when that idiot began speaking. "Fire is only dangerous if you see it that way, Princess. Understand that it's spontaneous and unexpected; sharp and mighty. If you were to corporate waterbending into this..."

"Well I know that if I weren't the Avatar and I was his or her waterbending teacher, I wouldn't be so reckless the way you are," I snapped angrily. Why was Natsu so difficult to comprehend? I growled. Hana, my earthbending teacher, was able to teach me the basics of earthbending. Under a couple of months had I mastered it. Even though she was hardheaded, we understood enough of each other to compromise. Feng, too. He had already taught me a little bit of moving the clouds around. Why was this so difficult?!

Natsu landed on his feet and in front of me. He was fifteen too, but a head taller than me. He let out this laugh that made me shiver. That was the thing that seemed to draw me to him. "Every teacher has a different way of teaching their student. If you're as patient as a waterbender should be, I'm sure that you'll master it in a matter of time."

I gritted my teeth and shoved him. I hated it when he was right. "I'm going to my room."

Firebending and Waterbending are polar opposites. I don't understand how he thought that I'd be able to understand this so easily.

"You okay, sis?"

"I'm fine." I snapped. I took in a deep breath and exhaled deeply before turning my head. Feng looked concerned. "I hate the fact that Natsu thinks he's such a know-it-all."

"For you to understand firebending, you need to be patient with him." Feng put a hand on my shoulder, the one that he had tattooed himself. I smiled. It was kind of funny; Ming Yu had always made fun of me by saying that not only was I Feng's sister, but I was his father too. Apparently Uncle Sokka really did find a way to get his daughter to retain his wit.

Suddenly, my smile dropped. "He's such a tease."

"Sure." Feng wasn't very comfortable with Natsu around either, but they were friends none-the-less. I kind of remember Aunt Suki saying that the way things were going, it was like history was repeating itself. Ming Yu was like Uncle Sokka (someone who seemed to crack jokes once in a while), Hana was Dad (someone who was stubborn and needed to be compromised with to be my teacher), Feng was Mom (someone that could soothe me), and Natsu was... I blinked. Natsu... was he like Avatar Aang's earthbending teacher? I shook the thought out of my head. "Well, about your boyfriend..."

"What?!" I looked back up. "Natsu is not my—"

"You seem to have heat coming out of your face down very well." Feng smiled as he stroked my hair like a good brother. "Get some sleep. Maybe I can get him to compromise for you."

I sighed and nodded my head. Plopping my head to my pillow, I closed my eyes. Firebending. What about Avatar Roku? AKA, great, great Grandfather Roku. It was weird how our family tree worked out. Was waterbending hard for him? Who knew. Slowly... I drifted off into slumber.

_"Hey. Hai." _

_ I looked up with a groan. Gasping, I saw him; Avatar Aang. He looked at me spiritually and couldn't help but smile. The last time I saw him, I thought he was mad at me since he forced me back into my own body. _

_ "I'm not mad at you." Avatar Aang chuckled again and he lowered to my height. "Come to the Southern Air Temple tomorrow. I know you're curious of my... life." _

I woke up with a fright the next morning and breathed inwardly. Dad looked at me, utterly startled. I think he was there to wake me up. Smiling, I brushed my bangs out of my face. "Good morning, Dad."

"Are you okay?" He asked me in that soft tone of his. "You looked as if you were having a nightmare or something."

Shaking my head, I smiled. "I was just tired. Natsu was going all out when he taught me firebending last night."

Dad scrunched his nose and sighed. "Don't let him overwork you. Avatar Roku spent twelve years when he became a fully realized Avatar. You only found out a couple of months ago that you were the Avatar, Hai."

I nodded my head. "I promise I'll be careful, Dad."

"Good."

"Dad?" I looked back at him curiously before standing up. He was only a head and a half taller than me by now. He flashed a curious look. "Avatar Aang—" He had that weird smile on his face. I was the only one to really call Avatar Aang 'Avatar' Aang. "—did he have a hard time mastering all four elements?"

Dad frowned suddenly. He seemed to be thinking of a way to explain things to me. "Aang... he was a special case. After all, he had one of the longest lives but one of the shortest—" I snorted a hundred and twenty-three "—but I think he had one of the most tortured. Since we were in a great war before this time, he was pressured into learning all four elements under a year—along with mastering the Avatar State. He didn't have the heart to kill your grandfather."

"Oh." That was all I could say. Even though Avatar Aang took the form of a thirteen-year-old, it was weird how stressed he was after all of these years. I stood up and picked up my water skin at the edge of my bed. "Send Mom my love."

"And where do you think you're going?" My father asked me quickly.

I smiled gently, pulling that stubborn lock of hair behind my ear once more. "The Southern Air Temple."

—

Feng had Appa come to a halt when we finally reached the temple. Appa let out a grunt of familiarity when we finally landed and I couldn't help but smile at the scene. I jumped off of Appa and looked around eagerly. We hadn't been here since we were little kids, and that was for Feng's learning airbending. I think he still kept the scrolls somewhere, but I wasn't exactly sure.

"Avatar Aang told me that I needed to come here so I could find out about his past," I explained carefully. I looked around for a comfortable place to sit and frowned. I wasn't one who particularly knew how to meditate. Uncle Iroh taught me the basics of it, but other than that, I was pretty much clueless. "Remember; don't move my body while I'm in the spirit world, okay?"

All of them nodded their heads in confirmation. I think Feng was going to go search for more scrolls. Hana and Natsu were more likely to be taking care of Appa. Closing my eyes, I kind of imagined meditating as a method of slumber. When I opened my eyes again, my surroundings had changed. Clouds surrounded me and a harsh breeze slapped my face. "Avatar Aang!"

Avatar Aang grinned as he landed in front of me on his glider. His appearance looked... different. This time, he looked as if he were the same age as Feng; maybe older. I could actually distinguish my brother's features in Avatar Aang's. "It's nice to see you again, Hai."

I smiled sheepishly and blushed. He was now a head taller than me and seemed much more bare than before. As strange as it sounded, he did look handsome.

"Thank you."

I felt the blush darken as I laughed. "How do you know what I'm thinking?"

Avatar Aang smiled at me before he took my hand. He slashed a gust of wind at the ground, which caused is to float up and land on a Sky Bison. "We're the same, aren't we?"

"Appa?" I asked curiously. I ran my hand through the fur of this Sky Bison. It seemed...different. Its fur was softer.

"His mother," Avatar Aang explained. He smiled sadly, hand on my shoulder. "Take care of the real one for me. I don't want him dying too soon."

I nodded my head slowly and sat cross-legged. "So where are you taking me?"

"I'm taking you... to where my life as the Avatar began."

It was strange the way that our family tree worked out, I had reminded myself. Avatar Roku was my great, great grandfather and Aang was the father of Feng. Biologically, Feng and I were half-siblings, but spiritually, he was my son..? It was weird how the war itself ended less than twenty years ago. I would have liked to have said that I must have been as pressured as Avatar Aang was since I was supposed to follow his footsteps, but I wasn't so sure.

"The weight of the world really is on the Avatar's shoulders. That's why I ran away in the first place. Don't make my mistake." Avatar Aang was reading my thoughts again. I looked up, utterly embarrassed. He grinned again, his hand on mine. The arrow tattoos he had were similar to my brother's. "Trust me. It gets... chilly being in an iceberg for a hundred years."

"Iceberg?" I repeated. I remember when my mother used to tell stories about Avatar Aang to Feng as bedtime stories when we were really young, but they were so vague and away now.

Avatar Aang laughed softly. "We'll get there."

In the middle of it, he showed me the scenes of when he first was told that he was the Avatar. No one wanted to speak to him anymore because of the power he held and the Monks wanted to take him away so that Monk Gyatso would not be a distraction. Avatar Aang looked so sad when he explained all of this. That was when it lead to the infamous iceberg.

"Is that my mother and uncle?" I asked with surprise once we made our way to the next memory Avatar Aang had. "She's beautiful!"

He nodded his head. Looking back at him, I saw a weary smile on his face. "She is. It was a shame that I never got to help raise my son." I quirked an eyebrow. "Send him my love." Avatar Aang smiled at me cheerfully.

We had gotten through so many tales that it was amazing. It seemed unbelievable that he had to endure so much so that he could finally find a waterbending teacher. And Princess Yue... Uncle Sokka never told any of us anything about her. I guess it was just too painful. Finally, we had gotten to a scene that surprised me the most. A swamp; sort of like the one that I had visited the Koh in months before. And... that girl. The mask of the dark-haired girl from before.

There she was... only younger. Avatar Aang's age after the iceberg thing. I looked his way immediately for answers and he nodded his head. "That's her."

"She's... cute," I described. She was very pretty. That laugh of hers while Avatar Aang was chasing her sort of reminded me of Natsu.

"Oh, the firebender." Avatar Aang read my thoughts immediately. I gaped. He chuckled. "She had a nickname for me too. 'Twinkletoes.' The way she taught me earthbending was different from what I was used to. My views and her views were different—and...she was blind."

"I'm so sorry...," I looked back up at Avatar Aang. "It must have been difficult for her."

Avatar Aang shook his head. "She used her blindness to see with the earth. Earthbending was her way of life. Sort of how that Natsu of yours uses fire as a spark of life and not a spark of destruction. Each and every element is different. Just like how each and every person was different."

I nodded my head slowly. What Feng said was right... I'd have to apologize to Natsu once this journey was finished. Cocking my head up, the memory seemed to change again. Avatar Aang was trying to convince her to join their team. "Avatar Aang?"

"Her name was Toph. Toph Bei Fong." He answered before I even asked the question. Avatar Aang smiled at me as we went through the memories.

He showed me memories of how Toph used her methods in teaching him, and that laugh of hers... it really did remind me of Natsu. We went onward through the memories, passing when Uncle Sokka learned swordsmanship to how my dad taught Avatar Aang firebending. After passing the Firelord, Avatar Aang showed me another memory: his wedding with my mother.

"I once had a thought that Katara was the reincarnation of Ummi.." Avatar Aang said quietly. He shrugged bitterly and I saw him look in a direction. He was staring at his earthbending teacher, Toph. She was in formal Earth Kingdom robes with her legs crossed as my mother walked down the aisle. "I guess I was wrong."

"Would that have been possible? For Ummi to be reincarnated, I mean?" I asked curiously.

He turned back to me with a sad smile. "Everything on earth is spiritually connected, Hai. It wouldn't be surprising if she were Katara... but she wasn't. Ummi became Toph.."

"What?" I breathed. Suddenly, Dad's words ran through my head and I put two-and-two together. It all made sense now. Avatar Aang nodded his head.

"Koh had stolen Ummi's face and repeated the events by stealing Toph's face." I stayed silent. We suddenly drifted into this said memory.

_Aang was twenty. He was tall and bold now and much taller than his wife was. The young avatar smiled, rubbing his hand across Katara's swollen belly. "It's going to be an airbender, I just know it. Katara, we're finally going to have another airbender!" _

_ Katara laughed softly and nodded her head. "Let's just hope he's the reason my belly is this swollen and _not_ fat." _

_ "You're still beautiful." Aang smiled, kissing his wife on the cheek. He grabbed his glider and looked around. "I'm supposed to meet Toph for a match. I'll be back for the baby shower. Both of us will." _

_ "Alright," Katara laughed. She called after him. "Make sure she doesn't bring a rock to the party! I'd want something with a little more effort!" _

_ Aang laughed it off as he left the temple. He turned his head in search for his old earthbending teacher. Smiling, he finally dove down at the sight of his best friend. "Toph! I was wondering where you were. So do you want to have a one-on-one with earthbending or earthbending and airbending?" Suddenly, he shuddered. All he saw was the back of his friend and from the looks of it, he didn't like it. _

_ She was on the ground, her feet barely touching the earth around her. She seemed much smaller and much tinier than he remembered and the way she wasn't even facing him didn't make him feel very comfortable. "I... did something you wouldn't like much, Aang." Aang? He frowned. She never referred to him by his normal name. It wasn't in her nature. _

_ "What do you mean?" Aang knew that Toph wasn't herself the past couple of years. They hadn't had a proper talk in ages, but he knew what this was about. He didn't like it either. "If this is about Katara..." _

_ "Of course it's about Katara—it's always about Katara!" Toph shrieked. Aang saw her trembling. She calmed down when she realized how vulnerable she had made herself. "Twinkles... you used me. The second you finally mastered earthbending... all of those things we did together meant nothing to you, did it?" _

_ "What are you saying, Toph? Every single memory all of us made were precious. We've been through a lot together!" Aang slammed his glider into the sandy ground before stepping up to her. _

_ "Don't move." Aang paused in step. Toph buried her fingers into fresh grass, head bent down. Gently, she whispered, "You're right. We've been through a lot together. You, me, Sokka... Zuko, Katara..." She was still referring to all of them by their real names. "But what about just you and me? When we were just twelve-years-old... Aang, would you honestly tell me that we'd be friends if you didn't need an earthbending teacher?" _

_ "..." the Avatar stayed silent. Suddenly, he spoke up again. "We were destined to meet each other, Toph. Maybe... Maybe a five hundred years ago or something, you and I were friends back then; no strings attached. The same way Sozin and Roku were." _

_ "What, when you were a girl and I was a boy or something?" A bitter laugh escaped her lips. Toph still didn't turn her head. It was like she couldn't. "Aang... you helped me leave that secluded world my parents kept me in." _

_ "And then they disowned you." Aang muttered quietly. "I'm still sorry for that, Toph." _

_ Finally, she turned her head to him. The second she did, he couldn't help but gasp. Her eyes weren't blank and lifeless as they had been when they first met. They were full of emotion. Anger... Fear... Love... Desire? _

_ "Toph... can you...?" _

_ Toph steadily nodded her head and hugged herself. She stumbled to walk as if she were a toddler taking its first steps. "I... I always wanted to know what you looked like. For myself."_

_ "And how do I look?" _

_ "Handsome." She stood up to the tip of her toes and stared straight into his eyes. Aang suddenly noticed the beauty around his best friend. The radiance, the elegance. Her lips... the way they looked inviting. She took him into a hug and stared at only him. Aang leaned forward and into a kiss, but Toph pushed him away. _

_ "Toph! I—" His expression dropped. Her shadow seemed different. Why hadn't he noticed it? It was the shadow of a centipede. _

_ "I made a deal. The second I saw your face would be the last time I saw anything. Ever." Toph hugged herself, eyes where Koh's shadow lay. She whispered softly, "Goodbye Aang. I love you." She began to glow as the sand around her began to engulf her. The expression in her eyes was gone and not once did she look back up to Aang. _

_ "Toph!" _

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. This couldn't have been a memory—this horrible, horrible thing. I looked back up to Avatar Aang with confusion. "But from the memories before... she looked absolutely fine."

"Those memories were of mine and in my point of view," Avatar Aang told me softly. When I scrutinized closer, I saw the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes. I wiped them away from his face, a frown on my demeanor. "I had never noticed that I had impacted Toph's life much more than I thought. After all, she had run away because of _me._"

I stayed close to the sky bison's fur. Breathing in the scent, I lay with sadness. "That's awful, Avatar Aang."

"It is, isn't it? Toph was falling apart from everything around her. Her facade had gone by with no one noticing her own torture," Avatar Aang put his hand on my head and smiled sadly. "I had learned from Koh that she had exchanged her life and face for just one glance of me."

"She loved you a lot, huh?" I asked in a small voice. Avatar Aang nodded his head. "So when my dad said that you died for someone you loved..."

"I spent there rest of my years searching for her. By the time I died... you were born." I shuddered. It was strange how close Avatar Aang's death and my birth were.

Looking back up, I couldn't help but have the question come back to me. "Did the love go requited, Aang?" It didn't seem proper until now to call him by his normal name. That seemed to make him brighten a bit.

"Yes... it did. I was blinded by one love to realize how much I loved another. Toph was the earth that I landed to after my days of flight." Avatar Aang took me back to the original place where our adventure had started. He had this wistful look to him and I couldn't help but feel awful about these events. "It was said that the swamp was a place where it reminds you that people of the past were still with you. I thought that Toph _was_ going to be someone I meet. I was wrong."

There was still one more question that seemed to bother me. I had to ask it before I left the spirit world. "Toph and Ummi... if you... no, the Avatar and they were destined to be lovers, then why is it that so hasn't happened?"

Avatar Aang smiled at me and pushed that annoying lock of hair behind my ear. He put a hand on my shoulder. "Avatar Roku once told me that if love was real, it found a way." His smile somewhat broadened, and I think at this moment I could read _his _thoughts. I blushed. "So. You tell me."

—

When I awoke, it looked like a whole day had gone by since I was in the spirit world. I looked around from where I was and the only one I could really see was Natsu. He was sleeping, but was probably keeping an eye out for my body. Appa, Feng, Hana, and Ming Yu seemed to be gone. I frowned.

Slowly, I crawled over to Natsu and shook him gently. "Natsu... wake up. Natsu."

"Huwha...?" He slowly opened his eyes, groaning and yawned. He sat up and looked straight at me with a tired grimace. "Ah. Seaweed Brain. Your brother and the others went to go get some food. I stayed behind so we could work on your firebending once you got back." Shrugging, he pointed to the dim sky. It was almost dawn. Smiling, he added, "Just in time. You rise with the moon..."

"And you rise with the sun." I laughed it off and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. I could feel the blush creep onto my face as he looked at me with those amber eyes. "I'm sorry for being so bitter about learning firebending, Natsu."

"It's fine, it's fine. I just thought you had too much water in your ears." He smiled at me mischievously. I punched him in the arm playfully and he laughed. "Shall we get learning then?"

I looked down to the shadows forming under us. My shadow and his shadow. Neither were centipedes. Smile widening, I looked back up. "Yeah. Let's learn."

**Author's Notes: **

A few things about this... It did feel kind of weird writing it, because I think I went to shallow the way it happened. I answered the questions like, "If Aang's dead, then how will airbenders be reborn?" too conveniently by adding Feng; then I added Hai to the story for Zutara. Yeah, I hate that part about this fic... But anyways, I hope you caught the hint that Natsu here was supposed to act as Toph's reincarnate. I kinda found it funny and sort of based it on how the Ember Island Play had Aang as a girl and Toph as a man. Lulz. Oh, and yeah, it did feel weird having _just_ twenty years past by for this. To be truthful, I don't think Aang _or _Toph would die in their twenties; they're much more kick ass than that. Oh well. I know how Taangers love the swamp theory though. This is just my contribution. (smilesmile)

Oh, and the title. You guys know what rendezvous means, right? A meeting point between two lovers. Sort of how the reincarnate thing worked for them. Ummi and Kuruk met, and reincarnated later to where Toph and Aang met. Then... Hai and Natsu. Alrighty then.


End file.
